”Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.“ (Genesis 19:19 NIV)
Lot refused to live at the right elevation.
I’m still marinating in Genesis with my Upper Zoom friends and we’ve spent the last few weeks with Lot in Sodom. It’s really not the right scripture for the Christmas season, but nevertheless we persisted.
The thing about crawling through a book of the Bible together is that you have time to make connections you might never notice at a faster pace. This week, I realized that Lot and Abraham were living at entirely different elevations. Physically and spiritually.
If you flip back to their parting of ways in Genesis 13 you’ll see that Lot took the low territory.
”Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)“
(Genesis 13:10 NIV)
Plains are low places by definition, but geography makes the plains around the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to be the very lowest on earth. The lakes surface lies 1400 feet below sea level!
Abraham, in the other hand, took the high ground. We see this in chapter 19, but also when we look at a map.
”He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.“ (Genesis 19:28 NIV)
Abraham lived a whole different elevation than Lot. Maybe this was why it was easier for Abraham to obey; he could see a little more clearly what God was doing. When we go up with God we gain divine perspective on Kingdom things. It’s tough to discern what God is accomplishing whilst we are in the thick of it.
It was in this week’s reading that I realized, God wanted Lot to change elevation. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be destroyed as a direct consequence of their sinful ways. Truly; the whole plain was about to burnt away. The angels dragged Lot and his family out by their limbs. Their instructions to Lot were crystal clear; flee to the mountains! But Lot didn’t just hesitate, he flat-out refused.
”But Lot said to them, “No, my Lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”“
(Genesis 19:18-20 NIV)
Lot insisted that he couldn’t climb, he wasn’t capable of such elevation change. He lacked the muscle; mentally physically or spiritually. Once again, the man compromised. And it cost him dearly.
Think about it. What does it look like when we climb a mountain in a hurry? All our energy is focused on the task in front of us. Our feet find their way because our eyes and hands are fully engaged, focused on picking our path forward.
What happens when we get to the top? We catch our breath, turn around and take in the view.
in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah.
I’d suggest that Lot’s compromise came with an exorbitant price tag. He was supposed to climb the mountain. Instead, he insisted on staying in the plain. God, in His mercy, spared Zoar. But from the small town in the middle of judgement everything looked like loss. Lot had a 360 degree view of destruction. It had to feel as the whole world was ending.
Two lasting troubles came from Lot’s compromise. His wife turned to salt and his daughters turned to incest. In the wake of the tragedy, Lot fought to forget what he’d seen by way of the bottle.
If Lot had obeyed and climbed the mountain, his wife would have been focused on the path before her instead of the past behind her. When the family got to the peak they would have seen Sodom and Gomorrah burning but they’d also have had a good view of an entire world beyond that sinful corner of existence. They would have found Abraham and his family, physical and spiritual kin. They would have had opportunity for courtship and families and restoration.
Instead they opted to sit in the center of destruction while it seeped into their souls. Each of them were poisoned by what they saw; things they were never supposed to take in because they were supposed to be long ago moved to higher elevation.
Here’s the thing: it’s hard to climb when we haven’t had practice. Lot had not exercised his obedience muscle in so long that when he finally went to use it, it atrophied. What he possessed in the way of spiritual strength was not enough to obey when it really mattered. There’s a lesson here for all of us.
Lot could have lived at a different altitude from the get go. He lived near enough to mountains, he could have climbed at any time. But his life of compromise made him comfy with sin, and then, when it really counted, he didn’t have the means to live out his ‘yes’.
Friends, rarely is altitude changed in a day. It’s incremental. God beckons up the path of His presence in small, steady steps.
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.“ hPhilippians 3:12-14 NIV)
Lord, please forgive us for our comfort with compromise. Lot’s tragedy is our tutelage. Urge us on in our growth toward You. May we continue to strive toward holiness, convince that the sweetest air is still higher. Give us strong limbs and perseverance as we climb nearer and nearer. May we gain enough ground to remain convinced, Your ways are higher. Amen.
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